Handout photo of piece of debris found by a South
African family off the Mozambique coast, which authorities will
examine to see if it is from missing Malaysia Airlines flight
MH370Thomson
Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Debris found earlier this month off the
southeast African coast which some believe could be from a
missing Malaysia Airlines flight has arrived in Australia for
testing, officials said on Monday, two years after the plane
disappeared.

A white, meter-long chunk of metal was found off the coast of
Mozambique this month by a US adventurer who has been carrying
out an independent search for flight MH370.

"These are items of interest but, because of the rigorous
analysis to be performed, it is not possible to speculate on how
long it might take to reach any conclusions," Australian
Infrastructure Minister Darren Chester said in a statement.

Two pieces of debris will be examined by investigators from
Australia and Malaysia, as well as specialists from Boeing,
Geoscience Australia and the Australian National University in
Canberra, Chester said.

Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai has said there is a
"high possibility" the metal chunk belongs to a 777 jet, the same
type of aircraft as MH370.

The plane disappeared on March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and
crew on board shortly after taking off from Kuala Lumpur bound
for Beijing.

It is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean and an initial
search of a 60,000 sq km (23,000 sq miles) area of sea floor has
been extended to another 60,000.

A piece of the plane's wing washed up on the French Indian Ocean
island of Reunion, on the other side of Madagascar, in July 2015.
So far only that piece, known as a flaperon, has been confirmed
to belong to the missing plane.

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